High school student Tatiana Redden reflects on her WorkReady internship at Yoh

Posted by: Cindy Lombardo

This is the second post of a three-part series of testimonials from young workers that were employed at Yoh during summer 2012.

Company values and mission statements: A mere marketing façade to bolster employment and product branding? Or are they an overarching compass for decision-making and corporate accountability? Unfortunately, the former is most likely true for most businesses. However, I am proud to work for a company whose employees are well aware of its corporate values and constantly have opportunities to use and promote these principles both in and outside of the office.

Success is one of Yoh’s core values. It encompasses our ability to make a difference for our customers, employees, and greater communities. For the past two summers, I have had the wonderful opportunity to contribute to this value by sponsoring a young woman in my department via Philadelphia Youth Network’s (PYN) WorkReady program. The WorkReady program affords high school students opportunities to develop on-the-job experience and skills via PYN-cultivated partnerships with companies such as Yoh. The program provides paid internships that will expose the youth to career exploration, relevant business skills, and mentorship.

It was two years ago, in an interview for one of these WorkReady internships, that I met Tatiana Redden. Tatiana immediately impressed me with her poise and interviewing skills, particularly for someone so young. During the interview, Tatiana asked intelligent questions about our specific internship opportunity and was able to relate the skills she had gained from school and extracurricular activities to the value she could provide on our team. We brought Tatiana on board for a data-entry project and quickly found that she possessed a solid work ethic and readily took the opportunity to learn and help with additional departmental projects.

Based on this terrific experience, we asked Tatiana back for a second summer through WorkReady to continue the project she started a year prior. To understand the impact of this program and the opportunity it has given us to spread our success value, read Tatiana’s comments about her time working at Yoh.

Internship insights

My name is Tatiana Redden, and I am a senior at Frankford High School in Philadelphia. I had the great pleasure of returning to Yoh for an internship this summer. I obtained this position through an organization called WorkReady, which offers high school students quality and paid internships, professional development classes, and workplace skills training.

My experience has been wonderful, and the opportunity to return to Yoh for a second summer has proved valuable for many reasons. First, I enjoy the work environment and my coworkers. I can network with the people in my workplace, create connections and bonds, and I get to work in an office setting that I really enjoy.

Secondly, at Yoh I have learned skills about search engines and strategies for using social media. I use social media and search websites every day, but I am now able to utilize them as important professional resources. For example, prior to my internship I used Twitter on a daily basis in my personal life, but I did not know the “#” symbol is called a hashtag and that it is a very important way to organize information and find out about other people’s interests. In addition, businesses can use hashtags to advertise or share information.

I have also enjoyed my internship because this is my senior year, and the internship has let me know that this is what I would enjoy as my career in the future. Being chosen to return to the same workplace after my first summer shows a lot about myself, my professionalism, and my work ethic. I am very proud of my accomplishments, and this experience pushes me to do more things in my future.